


Must Be Haunting Me

by FleetSparrow



Series: Fifty Days of Pupship [15]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Haunted Houses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 23:11:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14412525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/pseuds/FleetSparrow
Summary: Mokuba buys a haunted house and wants some of the gang to go explore in it.  Unfortunately, it's a little more haunted than they've bargained for.





	Must Be Haunting Me

**Author's Note:**

> Day 15 of 50 Days of Pupship: Free day

"And they were never found again."

Jounouchi clung to Honda's arm. "Is it true?"

Mokuba nodded. "I don't make up serial killer stories. There's enough cool ones out there anyway."

"Cool??" Jounouchi croaked. He huddled a little more behind Honda. "That shit's not cool, man. That's terrifying."

"I think it's thrilling," Ryou said, his eyes bright. "So ghastly to think of. And you know the house it was in?"

"I bought it," Mokuba said, proudly. "They wanted to tear it down, but I bought it instead. We're thinking of making it a new horror attraction."

Kaiba walked in, tablet in hand, catching the end of Mokuba's sentence. "Are you telling them about the ghost serial killer again?"

"Ghost?!" Jounouchi shouted. "What do you mean, ghost?"

"Oh, right, I forgot," Mokuba said, looking bored. "The killer only admitted to half of the killings. He said the rest were done by a ghost haunting the house. He said it's what drove him to murder."

"Did anyone believe him?" Honda asked.

Mokuba shrugged. "Some do. The police didn't. Still, it makes the haunting even better if there really is a ghost."

Jounouchi whimpered.

Kaiba sat down beside him. "You really are a coward when it comes to ghosts, aren't you?"

"They'll fuck you up, man," Jounouchi said. "It's not something to joke about."

"Well, we're gonna check out the mansion tomorrow," Mokuba said. "See what's salvageable, what we can put in. Anyone want to come?"

"I can't," Honda said. "I've got to babysit."

"I'd love to," said Ryou, practically bouncing on his heels in eagerness.

"I've gotta watch the shop," Yugi said, "or I'd come, too."

"Jounouchi?"

Jounouchi paled. "I... guess?"

"There's no such things as ghosts," Kaiba said.

"How do you know?"

"Because if our father could have become a ghost to haunt me, he would have. And obviously he's not around."

Ryou frowned. "Your logic is... interesting."

"The most dangerous thing we'll find there is mold," Kaiba said. "Honest."

The next day, they met at the game shop.

"Grandpa says he'll watch the shop for me," Yugi said. To Ryou, he whispered, "I told him Jounouchi needed moral support."

Ryou nodded. "A good idea. I don't think Kaiba is too kind about his fears."

"No, I think you're right."

Jounouchi entered the shop. "Alright! I've got talismans, amulets, spells." He passed them out to Yugi and Ryou as he listed them. "No ghost should bother me!"

Ryou and Yugi exchanged a quick glance. "Are you sure this will work?" Ryou asked.

"It better," Jounouchi said. "You know what I paid for these things?"

The Kaibas' limo pulled up and Mokuba bounded out of the car. "Hey, guys! Ready to head out?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Jounouchi said, handing Mokuba a talisman.

Mokuba looked at the talisman curiously, then shrugged. "Alright, gang! Let's go!"

They all climbed into the limo, Jounouchi crawling over to sit by Kaiba. “Here you go,” he said, handing an amulet to Kaiba.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. “What’s this for?”

“No ghosts are gonna get us with these,” Jounouchi said, proudly. Kaiba nodded slowly, but allowed Jounouchi to put the amulet around his neck. Jounouchi was armed to the gills with spells and talismans, stuffed into pockets and pinned to his shirt. “We’re gonna be all right.”

The Kaiba’s shot each other a skeptical look, but for once didn’t say anything.

The journey out to the old mansion was a short one. The mansion stood a winding path away from the road, a path that was overgrown with plants and greenery. It was a traditional Edo style building with its many roofs and gables. The doors were chained shut. Mokuba produced the key and opened the lock.

“Everybody ready,” he said, grabbing a hold of the doors. With a faint murmur and nods from the others, he turned back to the door and pushed them open.

A sudden rush of air from inside the building hissed past them. Jounouchi’s talismans shook in the wind.

“What was that?”

“A breeze,” Kaiba said. “There’s likely to be broken windows inside. There’s nothing supernatural about any of this.”

Yugi and Ryou exchanged a look. “Do you feel anything?” Yugi asked.

Ryou shook his head. “Not yet. Except it was an awfully cold breeze for this time of year.”

“Breezes tend to be cooler than the stagnant air,” Kaiba said sharply. “Shall we go in?” He pushed forward and led the way inside.

The inside of the building was much more modern than the outside. A giant TV hung on the wall over a small gas fire pit. There was a smattering of furniture around the main room, chairs mostly, things that were left behind that weren’t covered in blood. A very modern clock hung on the wall opposite the TV, with no numbers on it, just hands that looked painted on.

“See?” Mokuba said. “There’s nothing weird about this place. We’ve got to do something about this furniture, though. It’s hideous.”

“I thought you wanted it to be horrific,” Kaiba said, smirking.

“Ha ha. You’re very funny.”

Jounouchi stayed close to Yugi as they slowly wandered around the room. “It’s not too bad, if you don’t think about what happened.”

“We might be able to incorporate that television,” Kaiba said, making notes on his KaibaCorp tablet. “Very Ring-esque.”

“For the ghost. That’s perfect,” Mokuba said, examining a cabinet. “We could hydraulics this thing, making it a shaking cabinet.”

“Good, good.”

They went on like that, searching the room, making statements about what could go where, how much blood should be on things. “We should get photos from the crime scene,” Mokuba said. “Set it up to really be accurate.”

A door slammed shut somewhere in the house.

Jounouchi jumped. “What was that?”

“A door,” Kaiba said. “Nothing else. I told you, this place must be drafty. We’ll need to do something about the windows in this place.”

“Kaiba,” Yugi started tentatively. “Have you noticed something?”

“Hmm? What?”

“There aren’t any windows in this room. So where did that wind come from.”

Kaiba looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “I neither know nor care. It’s an old house. There’s bound to be something broken letting in the wind. It’s nothing.”

“We should check out the upstairs,” Mokuba said, making his way towards the staircase. “The killer said it was upstairs that his nightmares began, like the ghost inhabits whatever’s up there.”

“Fine by me,” Kaiba said, following his brother. Jounouchi lurched after him, catching his hand in his. Kaiba acted like nothing had happened, but didn’t let go of Jounouchi.

Yugi and Ryou followed behind them.

“Are you feeling anything yet?” Yugi asked again.

Ryou nodded. “There’s something in this house that doesn’t like us being here. I can feel it in the air.”

Yugi nodded. “Me too. I just hope it doesn’t do anything more than slamming a few doors.”

Upstairs, the place was trashed. Everything that had been loose at one time was scattered about the floor. One of the upstairs doors was broken in half, its top bending in to the room like a slumped corpse. There were deep scratches in the ceiling, like claws had raked through the plaster.

“Well, this is going to be hell to clean,” Mokuba said. “Guess we’ll have to get in some real professionals. I’m surprised they didn’t clean this when they went through the house the first time.”

“Maybe it happened since then,” Jounouchi said, gripping Kaiba’s hand. “Maybe it happened because we’re here.”

“That’s nonsense,” Kaiba said. “We would have heard the noise downstairs if it only happened within the last few minutes. The trauma cleaners probably didn’t want to put in the effort. There’s no blood here.”

“That’s not as reassuring as that sounds,” Jounouchi said.

Kaiba shook his hand free to start taking notes again.

Mokuba meandered to the other rooms, popping his head in and out of them as he passed by. “Everything looks OK in these rooms. We’ll want to put in another staircase, so people can get out without having to double back.”

“We might have to build an edition to the house,” Kaiba called back. “This house isn’t quite as big as I’d imagined.”

“It looked bigger in the photographs,” Mokuba yelled. “Hey, guys, I think I found something.”

They followed Mokuba into a far room. Inside was a small door leading to somewhere inside the house.

“I’ll bet this is his ghost,” Kaiba said. “Someone’s been living here.”

“I can’t get it open,” Mokuba said. “I wonder if there’s a trick to it.”

Ryou spoke up. “You know, traditionally, opening a tiny door tucked into a room is usually when things go very wrong.”

Mokuba scoffed. “C’mon, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“There could be another serial killer in there,” Jounouchi said, “just waiting for us to open the door.”

Kaiba rolled his eyes and went to help his brother pry open the door. They pulled with all their might, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“It might be painted over,” Kaiba said, checking the edges of the door. “I’ll make a note to have that opened. It might lead somewhere interesting.”

“As long as it leads us out of here, I’m OK,” Jounouchi said, fingering the amulet around his neck.

“Since you’re in such a hurry, Jounouchi, we’ll be out of here soon,” Kaiba said, looking very put out by Jounouchi’s cowardice.

“I can’t stand ghosts, man, I keep telling you,” Jounouchi said as they left the room.

“And I keep telling you, there are no such things as ghosts.” Kaiba paused as they stopped in the main room. Everything was clean and as it should be. There were no scratches anywhere, the door was intact, and the papers and trinkets that had been thrown on the floor and shattered were back on shelves or on the walls.

“Mokuba, come see this,” Kaiba called behind him, his eyes taking in the state of the room. “Mokuba!”

Jounouchi turned. “I swore he was right behind us.”

Nobody was behind them. They stepped out into the hallway. The doors that had once been opened by Mokuba were now all shut.

“He’s probably still trying to get through that door,” Kaiba said, heading down the hall. Jounouchi followed close behind him.

When they got to the room, Kaiba pushed the door open only to find nothing. Not even the tiny door.

“This has to be the right room,” Kaiba said. “I made a drawing of the floor plan.”

“Oh man, oh man,” Jounouchi said. “We’re in a haunted house, Kaiba. It’s taking us for a ride.”

“Oh, be quiet. There’s no such thing as haunted houses.”

“Then how do you explain the clean room, huh? How about the fact that we know there was a door here that’s now gone?”

“We’ve just gone down the wrong hallway,” Kaiba said. “Everything in this house looks too much alike.”

“I don’t think so, Kaiba,” Jounouchi said, standing closer to him. “I think we’re trapped.”

“We’re not trapped. We just need to find our way downstairs. Come on.”

Kaiba led the way out into the hall and back to the main room. Everything was neat as it had been before. He led Jounouchi down the stairs.

“See, everything is as it should be.”

He stopped short at the bottom of the stairs. The TV was smashed and half falling off the wall. The clock was painted in what looked like smeared blood, the new numbers streaked and dripping into one another. The furniture was covered in dark red stains, still weeping onto the floor. Hanging from the ceiling was the body of a teenage boy, his throat cut open, bright red.

Jounouchi grabbed Kaiba’s hand and Kaiba let him take it. “Holy shit,” Jounouchi said. “Holy shit, we’re in the haunted house.”

Kaiba took a tentative step off the stairs, careful where to put his weight in case the floor suddenly swallowed him up. It stayed solid.

“It looks like one of the boys that broke into this house during the killings,” Kaiba said. “Saito Akamura.”

“You know their names?” Jounouchi asked incredulously.

“I memorized the case notes. It was research for what we were going to do with the house. His body was never found.”

“Well, we found it now.”

Kaiba frowned. “Why use one of the old corpses to frighten us? Why not terrorize the others?”

“Yugi!” Jounouchi said. “Yugi and Bakura were with Mokuba! And they’re all gone.”

“The best thing we can do is to go outside and wait for them to find us,” Kaiba said, leading Jounouchi off the stairs. “Just try not to look at anything.”

“Easier said than done,” Jounouchi grumbled. He held Kaiba’s hand and forced himself to look straight ahead as they walked. The path to the door seemed to go on forever. Jounouchi took a glance around him just once, noting a plant on a table. They walked past it. A minute later, they passed the plant again.

“Kaiba,” Jounouchi said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

“I’ve noticed.” He stopped. “So what do we do about it?”

“Maybe,” Jounouchi began. “Maybe if we go back upstairs, everything will change again.”

Kaiba stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. He didn’t have any better ideas. “Come on, then.”

As they reached the top of the stairs, they heard voices. Mokuba, then Yugi, then, softly, Ryou.

“Oh thank god,” Jounouchi said, letting go of Kaiba’s hand to run up the rest of the stairs. “Guys, you won’t believe what just happened to us!”

Kaiba came up the stairs slower, waiting to hear a reply. There was none. He reached the top of the stairs and nearly ran into Jounouchi. “What is it?”

The room was once again trashed. But nobody else was there.

“I’m sure I heard them,” Jounouchi said. “Didn’t you hear them?”

“I thought I did,” Kaiba said, stepping around Jounouchi to see around the room. “Let’s check the back room again.”

The room was back to the way it had been, with the little door in one corner. This time, the door was opened.

“Oh man, oh man,” Jounouchi said. “Something came out of here, I know it.”

“Wait,” Kaiba said.” He headed back to the main room, listening for voices again. He tapped on the walls. “Mokuba?”

“Seto!” came a faint cry. “Where are you?”

“Out here. In the room. Where are you?”

“Inside the wall. We, uh, we found some bodies. It’s really bad in here.”

“Get out while you can,” Kaiba said. “Before the door shuts on you again.” He returned to the back room. “Jounouchi?”

“Yeah?”

Kaiba sighed in relief. “Has the door shut?”

“No, it’s still wide open. I was about to come find you.”

“They’re in the walls,” Kaiba said. “We need to watch the door so it doesn’t change again.”

“Got it.”

And so they waited. And waited. And waited.

“Mokuba,” Kaiba called. “Where are you?”

Finally, they heard a sort of slumping noise come from behind the wall. A hand flopped out through the door, pulling its body behind it with a jolt. Another corpse.

Jounouchi’s hair rose on end. “Kaiba, that’s not—!”

“I know,” Kaiba said, taking Jounouchi’s hand. “Mokuba, get out here now!”

The shuffling corpse flopped its way closer. It raised its head, its throat gashed open just as the other had been. It came closer and Kaiba kicked it, catching its head and flinging it back across the room. It lay there immobile.

“Do you think it’s…?” Jounouchi asked.

Suddenly, the corpse reared up at them and roared. In an instant, Jounouchi was pulling Kaiba down the hall and back down stairs, muttering, “Gotta get out, gotta get out, gotta get out!” He ran towards the door, yanking Kaiba behind him. This time, the door stayed where it was. They both came running out of the house, panting once they were down the path.

“Did you see that?” Jounouchi asked between breaths.

“Yes, I even touched it,” Kaiba said. They stared at each other, wide-eyed.

“Hey, guys!” Mokuba called. “Where have you been?”

They looked up. Mokuba, Yugi, and Ryou were down by the limo. Mokuba was waving up to them.

“How long have you been out here?” Kaiba asked as they joined the rest of them.

“Like, ages,” Mokuba said. “We left after we looked around that door. Where did you two go?” Mokuba waggled his eyebrows. “You two didn’t go off and make out somewhere, did you?”

Kaiba and Jounouchi shared a look. “We saw,” Jounouchi began, but Kaiba shook his head sharply.

Ryou perked up. “What did you see, Jounouchi?”

He swallowed. “Too much.”

Yugi reached out and took his hand, squeezing it encouragingly.

“We’ll tell you on the way home,” Kaiba said, pulling out his phone. “First, I need to make a call. Excuse me.” He walked away from the limo and got on his phone.

Jounouchi leaned against the car. “We saw the ghosts, man. Two of them. The bodies of the kids who died in there.”

“You didn’t,” Mokuba said.

“I swear to god! Kaiba saw it too!”

“I wonder why they singled you out,” Ryou said.

“I don’t know, man, but I never wanna see anything like that again.”

Yugi frowned at the amulet around Jounouchi’s neck. “Maybe this was it,” he said, picking it up.

“What, like it drew it to us?”

“Maybe,” Yugi said. “Your wards could’ve canceled each other out. Or maybe ghosts just like amulets.”

“Then why didn’t you guys see anything?”

“I wasn’t wearing mine,” Ryou said. “It was in my pocket.”

“I never had one,” Mokuba said, shrugging. “Maybe it summoned the ghosts. Woooo!!”

“Gah, stop that!” Jounouchi said, slapping a hand towards Mokuba. “Anyway, whatever’s in there is nasty and I’m not going in there again.”

“Not even once we turn it into a haunted house?”

“It’s plenty haunted already,” Jounouchi said. “It doesn’t need your help.”

Kaiba returned to them. “Mokuba, you remember trying to open that door, don’t you?”

“Uh, yeah, but it was stuck.”

Kaiba held up his phone. “I just got the blueprints for the house. There’s no sign of a door or a crawlspace anywhere in the house.”

“What?” Mokuba stood up. “But we saw it!”

“You guys didn’t get the door open or anything, right?” Jounouchi asked.

Mokuba shook his head. “We couldn’t get it open. You guys left, so we figured we’d head out too. That’s why it was weird you weren’t waiting for us here.”

“We were sure you’d be here,” Yugi said.

Kaiba and Jounouchi exchanged a look. “I think we’ll need to do another check on the house,” Kaiba said. “But maybe later. After we’ve had a chance to think about it.”

The house stared down at them impassively, watching as they climbed into the limo and drove away. They would be back, as so many had been before, and the house would still be there.

Waiting.


End file.
